UʻI i ka lei
24 Feb 2022
Pretty is the lei
Any day that there is a lei, is a special day. A graduation, a birthday, a paʻina, or any occasion really, even for a Bat Mitzvah from your neighbor two blocks down and one block up from you. A lei shares its beauty, craftsmanship, and most importantly a story. Behind its beauty lies the creative minds and careful hands and a set of common rules for each style of lei, much like any website or app! For example wili leis specifically use a wrapping motion to secure the plant material in place for the lei, while haku lei use a braiding technique. Similarly different UI frameworks have a set of CSS and / or JavaScript functions which make web and app design easier, consistent, and pretty. Programmers use UI frameworks in order to simplify the development of layout, provide an attractive look / feel, and provide consistent results across browsers.
Consistency within the lei and between leis is important, no matter what flowers, greenery, color selection, or size of fauna you choose to use everything must stay relatively uniform. Parallels such as elements, font and background color, font-size, and font-family are applicable to web and app designing. Although we all appreciate a lei or website that chose to take a “creative and unique spin”, those projects should be left in the archives of America’s Funniest Home Videos, away from the public eye lol. A well composed site or app should be praised for its ability to stand out due to its design while still looking like a proper website by the standards of a UI framework.
The Sum of Their Parts
You can’t expect a lei made with all of the most expensive and beautiful flowers of the land to automatically be the most beautiful lei in the history of leis. In this case the sum of their parts is not the greatest. A good lei has its primary flowers, accent flowers, and greenery with an appropriate color selection. Much like how a website or app should use complimenting fonts, colors, and shapes to appeal to the user rather than picking all of the flashy fonts and colors. The implementation of frameworks makes the guessing game much less of a guessing game and more of a playbook. Moreover, and I’m going to say it again, CONSISTENCY is achieved!! In the article “7 rules for creating gorgeous UI” part 1 and 2, I learned that all of the little details are what uplift the final product to look as great as it does. Following simple rules for button and toggle switch shading or doubling whitespace create a more cohesive end product within itself and compared to other websites.
Poʻo, Kino, Wāwae
Kin to websites, leis have a head, body, and a “foot.” Although the body of the lei is the shining star of the lei the head and the body are just as if not equally important because without the head there would be no body and without the foot the lei would unravel. Similarly, although the body of the website is where the majority of users will spend their time, the head of the website acts as a guide and the footer provides important additional information and cant be overlooked in the design process, otherwise the flow of the website is cut off. The lesson here is that there is an interdependent relationship between the three sections. This concept was drilled into my head by observing and recreating many sites for class. The heavy emphasis demonstrated to me how each section needs to be coherent with each other.